In 10 days, we created an entirely new curriculum.

Tom Gattis clearly remembers the day Ohio was put under a state of emergency. “It was the day after my birthday—March 9,” he told me over Zoom. Gattis is a professor and the Dean of Undergraduate Studies at the Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD) in Ohio. 

“We were just starting our spring break,” he continued, “and we extended it by a week to buy us more time. In 10 days, with the support from our IT staff, we created an entirely new curriculum and introduced our teaching faculty to new digital platforms that many of them were unfamiliar with.”

Gattis’ story is all too familiar among those working within higher education. 

Back in November of 2019, Harvard Business Review was calling for higher education to be disrupted. It only took a few months for their wish come true. And it did on a massive scale. The global pandemic, and subsequent campus shutdowns, dropped universities and colleges into the unknown territory of “remote learning.” Administrators like Gattis were left to solve a massive problem: How do we continue to deliver a high-quality education to students digitally? 

“What I found interesting about all of this is that the designer in me kicked in,” said Gattis, “not the higher ed administrator. I started looking at it as this giant, wicked problem I had to solve. It was like this giant puzzle that’s round and every piece is black.”

But according to Gattis, the virtual world is “a lot more efficient” in many ways, allowing universities and colleges to use technology to deliver programs in an easy and inexpensive manner. “I’ve heard from faculty and students that, in some classes, the learning is easier,” said Gattis. “Since the lectures are now recorded, students can review the content more than once. If they don’t understand something the first time, they have more chances to assess their understanding. Overall, what we’re learning is that these modes of delivery are not going away.”

There are still some pieces of the puzzle that still bother Gattis. As a design school, CCAD has had the added problem of developing a replacement for hands-on classwork, like ceramics or model-building. As well, Gattis has found it difficult to reproduce the serendipity of the traditional studio space in a virtual setting.

“Those serendipitous moments—those “aha” moments—have been lost. Traditionally, the collaborative studio space allows students to ask questions, fail, and learn from their mistakes together. 

When I asked Gattis if there was a way to recreate the serendipitous moments virtually, his answer was simple: “The technology just isn’t there yet.”

The job market is another aspect of modern life that has been put under immense pressure by the pandemic. Millions of people have found themselves either furloughed or put out of work altogether. And as we enter 2021, one thing is certain: Covid-19 has permanently changed how we think about hiring, and searching, for jobs.

Most companies have remained virtual, ditching their offices for remote work practices. They have also developed new guidelines on how and where they are hiring, as well as the skills they are looking for.

“If I were an employer looking to hire a recent graduate today, I would be asking more questions and digging a little deeper,” said Gattis. He continued to explain how, a couple of decades ago, young people would be hired by a company and given additional training when needed. Now, the model has shifted, and employers are expecting graduates to have the requisite experience before even joining the company.

“Internships and co-ops are more important today than ever before,” said Gattis. “When you apply the knowledge you learn in class to an actual project, on the job, the learning becomes deeper and your understanding becomes broader. It makes you more valuable.”

According to Gattis, this type of practical experience is invaluable in today’s job market, and the same goes for developing a global mindset. 

“I was told once, ‘If you're sending me students who don't have some significant study abroad experience, or they haven't spent a semester somewhere else—I don't want to speak with them. Because most of our clients are not in the US any longer.’ And it’s important to recognize the significance of that. It's really about the journey, not the end result. You learn and attain new perspectives, while also building empathy and an understanding that the world does not operate like the West does.”

Reach out to me at [email protected] if you’d like to chat about the future of work, or to learn more about how the future of work is evolving.